Friday, September 16, 2011

A Singaporean reporter sharing her new-found pride of being a Singaporean

A visit to Spain for an event and a witness to
protests, high unemployment rate, inefficiency and even fluctuating weather
gave rise to her pride of being a Singaporean.{Here} Because of the inconveniences
that she encountered over the few days of weeks, Jeanette Tan decided that she
could barter her education debt, our issues on housing, foreign influx and
inflation in exchange for the conveniences that she value…..To each his own.

However, intriguingly, her revelation
begets two debatable questions: (1) The constitution of her pride and
(2) the need to play down others to boost her national identity

(1) A glance through her listed sources of national
pride. Orderliness, high employment rate, efficiency and consistent weather, in
her own interpretation, constitute a Singaporean. And suffice to make a proud
one too.

To side track a little—imagine my eldest sister visited a friend's house to
come back telling me how beautiful her friend's sofa was and the abundance of
food that they had at their place; my second sister visited that same friend came
back telling me how cosy her friend's house was and how good her friend's
brother was at computer games. Both my sisters chose a different perspective to
judge their friend's house but it was my second sister who was able to see
beyond the materials.

But the reporter could not. Weather aside, her pride circled largely around
materialistic traits. And thinking a little beyond, these traits buoy down to
the results of “good governance”, little or no credits were given to the
citizens of our country. Not to mention that “good governance” is highly
disputable in our case, if we think along the line of the huge maintenance cost
of our Cabinet and compared that to the cost of the Spanish Cabinet for a
country of such scale and size. We cannot forget the fact that the first 30
highly paid politicians in this universe all came from Singapore {Here}
. We must therefore remind ourselves for the premium that we are made to pay.
In such light, “good governance” is not a blessing or a gift from the
providence, but AN EXPECTATION. It still remains to be calculated economically,
psychologically, socially and politically, whether such maintenance costs are
met with proportionate returns.

One interesting thing to note amongst the reasons of the reporter's pride, is the
severe lacking of any country-specific characteristics, ie. what constitutes Singapore
and a Singaporean? Surely beyond high-employment rate, efficiency and social
peace? What about our outwardly less civil but inwardly warm-hearted traits and
the simplicity of our people or our ethnic vibrancy? Can sole governance be an
absolute representation of a country?

Seemingly, on a bold assumption, any place on earth that could provide high
employment, calm weather and efficiency will be equally worthy of the
reporter's pride?

I am not saying that I dislike high employment, efficiency and social peace.
Nobody does. But certainly, these would not be the things that would MAKE ME
PROUD of my nationality. Rather these are the materials which I will enjoy,
desire and APPRECIATE. I am materialistic too, like many of us.

(2) As for the latter, the constant need of
self-glorification through playing down others is really uncalled for. In fact,
it’s a manifestation of low esteem.

Imagine again, my eldest sister visited her friend’s place came back only to
say, “How wonderful my house/family is! I am so proud of ourselves! We have
abundance of good food, nicer-coloured walls and cleaner toilet bowls.” What
kind of person would you make out of my eldest sister? To denounce her friend's
house/home to glorify herself, my eldest sister is uncivil, shallow,
self-centred and pitiful. Such mindset will never allow her to appreciate the
goodness of others. Moreover, she overlooked the fact that good and bad are
both sides of the same coin. Additionally, such act of comparison is also
simplistic.

We have a bad habit of consistently comparing other nations with ourselves to
convince our "success". And not realizing that the gesture of
comparison as in most cases are only selective to different extent where the
differences of history, languages, demography, geography, climate, social,
economic and political systems of the nations involved are disregarded and
therefore the gesture of comparison itself is simplistic and limited in scope.
Because no two countries in this world are alike. Yet, our Southeast
Asia neighbours are still our faithful negative examples to re-affirm
our “successful story”, where we are totally oblivious to each country’s unique
historical and cultural circumstances. Such gesture only serves to flaunt our
shallowness and naivety.

Not
forgetting that any country of this planet has a far longer and richer history
and development, therefore more complicated than ours. It is therefore narrow-minded
to denounce any nation based on a few factors or brief encounters. And it is
even bad taste to sing praises of ourselves whilst turning noses at others! It
is appalling, how one can condemn Spain in absolute after a brief
stay and a few incidents?

The spirit of a nation goes beyond the façade of infrastructure and administrative
system that distinct itself from any other place on earth. And this would be
the trait that I choose to be proud of. Again, to each his own.